1. Maldives presidential poll

Senior parliamentarian of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Mr. Solih secured 58.3% of the votes, while Mr. Yameen obtained 41.7%, according to preliminary results released by the Elections Commission. The final tally is expected in a week.

The election comes after the Indian Ocean Archipelago, home to over four lakh people, plunged into a political crisis, triggered by Mr. Yameen declaring an Emergency in February.

2. Navy officer Tomy rescued after three-day search

After a three-day global search and rescue effort, Commander Abhilash Tomy of the Navy, stranded in the Southern Indian Ocean, was rescued by French shipping vessel Osiris on Monday.

He was stuck in inclement weather while participating in the Golden Globe Race (GGR) 2018, which commenced on July 1.

An Indian Navy P-8I maritime patrol aircraft had reached the location in the morning. However, 8-10- -metre-high waves and heavy winds stalled rescue efforts

He had suffered severe back injury after the mast of his boat Thuriya broke on Friday in extremely rough weather and sea conditions, with wind speeds of 130 kmph and 10-metre-high waves. He was stranded approximately 1,900 nautical miles from Perth, Australia, and 2,700 nautical miles from Cape Comorin (Kanniyakumari).

Osiris then headed to rescue another participant in the race, Gregor McGuckin from Ireland, about 30 miles from Commander Tomy’s location. His boat, too, had been dismasted owing to bad weather. Commander Tomy and Mr. McGuckin will be dropped on the French island of I’lle Amsterdam.

3. Centre finalising tariffs on non-essential imports

The government has finalised the list of non-essential items on which it will be imposing import tariffs, according to a senior official in the Finance Ministry.

The official said the list, to be notified soon, would include electronics, gems, select items of steel that are also manufactured in India, imported apples, and almonds, among others.

“There has been a discussion on the list for the last two weeks,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity since the list has not been notified yet. “The main issue under consideration was whether to include gold in it. The list has now been finalised and will include most of the non-essential items…”

4. Crucial claims round of NRC begins today

The crucial claims and objections round of the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is scheduled to start from Tuesday. This phase provides a 60-day window of hope for 4,007,707 of the 32.9 million applicants who were left out of the complete NRC draft published on July 30.

The process will also enable correction of names and allow people to raise objections against suspected foreigners.

5. Odisha changes norms in food, procurement policy

The Odisha government on Monday decided to facilitate entry of more small and marginal farmers and share-croppers into the procurement fold by bringing changes in the norms of food and procurement policy for the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2018-19.

The Cabinet, which approved the food and procurement policy for KMS 2019 to regulate all aspects of paddy and rice procurement during the ensuing KMS, decided that paddy (Kharif crop) will be procured between November, 2018 and April, 2019. The paddy (Rabi crop) will be procured from May to June, 2019.

A tentative target to procure 55 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers has been fixed which will be around 37 lakh tonnes in terms of rice. Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Minister has been authorised to revise the target if need arises.

The farmers would be paid the Minimum Support Price (MSP) fixed by the Central government at ₹1,750 per quintal for the common variety of paddy and ₹ 1,770 for Grade-A variety. The money would be directly paid into the bank accounts of farmers within three days of the procurement.

MoU with Centre

While 23 lakh tonnes of the procured rice will be pumped into the Public Distribution System in the State, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will evacuate the remaining 14 lakh tonnes of rice to other States as per the MoU with the Centre.

6. Gadkari dedicates to nation upgraded NH-44

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday dedicated to the nation the renovated and upgraded National Highway-44, which would boost industrial development in Meghalaya. Highlighting the importance of the upgraded NH-44, Mr. Gadkari said the road passes through coal and cement belts in the State.

7. Panel approves nutrition norms

India’s top nutrition panel has recommended that severely malnourished children must be fed freshly cooked food prepared from locally available cereals, pulses and vegetables, and distributed by anganwadi centres, as part of the country’s first-ever guidelines for nutritional management of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

The measures are part of the community-based health management of children suffering from SAM. The government had, till now, only put in place guidelines for the hospitalisation of severely wasted children who develop medical complications. Those norms were made public in 2011.

The norms were okayed by a scientific sub-committee under the NTBN, according to the minutes of the meeting issued last week.

Anganwadi workers

The guidelines outline the role of anganwadi workers and auxillary nurse midwives (ANMs) in identifying severely wasted children, segregating those with oedema or medical complications and sending them to the nearest health facility or nutrition rehabilitation centres.

Importantly, the government has also revised the method to be used to measure wasting and advised calculating weight based on the height of children instead of the mid-upper arm circumference.

8. Budgetary support must be strengthened to make Ayushman Bharat a success

Ayushman Bharat has been rolled out as a health protection scheme that will provide guaranteed access to treatment that is free at the point of delivery to about 40% of the population selected on the basis of censused socio-economic indicators. It is the essential first step on the road to universal health coverage, although it has been launched by the NDA government quite late in its term, possibly with an eye on the 2019 general election. Since the Centre has announced that 10.74 crore families identified through Socio-Economic Caste Census data will be given an annual ₹5 lakh cover under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (the insurance component of the scheme), the question of eligibility appears settled. But the late start makes it virtually impossible for all those who are technically insured to avail of the services that state agencies must make available, within a reasonable time-frame. And, the allocation of just ₹2,000 crore during the current year to the PMJAY cannot provide the promised cover to the large population sought to be included.

9. Executive magnification

Management

This refers to the common tendency among employees of an organisation to construe informal, non-serious comments made by persons in positions of authority as serious orders that need to be obeyed. The term was coined by American management professor Robert Sutton while elaborating on how bosses may inadvertently be forcing their employees to waste time and energy carrying out tasks that actually do not in any way add to the productivity of their organisations. Sutton suggested that executive magnification could be overcome through efforts that encourage criticism of management choices.

10. The Army conducted surgical strikes along the LoC on Sept. 29 two years ago.

11. India’s 100th airport opens in Sikkim

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the first airport in Sikkim. With this, the number of functional airports in the country went up to 100.

The airport at Pakyong, about 30 km from Gangtok and surrounded by mountains, is a major boost to connectivity in the mountainous State.

Mr. Modi said the airport would be linked to the Union government’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) regional connectivity scheme and the airfare for about an hour would come to ₹2,500.

The airport has been constructed at an estimated cost of ₹605 crore.

12. Foreign Minister to address UNGA on Saturday

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj kicked off her week-long diplomatic engagements at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday morning, attending a special meeting on drugs.

Ms. Swaraj will attend several bilateral and multilateral meetings over the next few days. She will address the UNGA on Saturday. Ms. Swaraj will also attend a special meeting on climate change being convened by Secretary General António Guterres during her stay in New York.

U.S. hostility

The 73rd UNGA is taking place against the backdrop of increased American hostility towards the world body in particular and multilateralism in general.

13. Russia to supply S-300 missile system to Syria

Russia announced on Monday that it will supply an S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria in two weeks against strong Israeli objections, a week after blamed Israel for indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military plane in Syria.

14. Facebook to have new head in India

Facebook has appointed Ajit Mohan as managing director and vice-president of the social networking site’s India operations.

Mr. Mohan, who was previously the CEO of video streaming platform Hotstar, will join Facebook early next year. The post was lying vacant since the exit of Umang Bedi last year.

In his new role, Mr. Mohan will be responsible for aligning teams and driving Facebook’s overall strategy in India, the firm said. “This is a new structure for Facebook India of having a senior leader reporting into Menlo Park and not Asia Pacific,” it added.

15. Padmaja Chunduru is MD & CEO Indian Bank

Padmaja Chunduru has assumed charge as MD & CEO of Indian Bank. Earlier, Ms. Chunduru was managing director (global markets), State Bank of India, Corporate Centre, Mumbai. In a career spanning more than three decades, she has rich experience in corporate lending and credit management, retail operations, digital banking treasury and international operations, Indian Bank said.

16. Tiger roars back from the woods in style

Tiger Woods scored his first victory in more than five years on Sunday, completing a two-shot win at the Tour Championship to crown a fairy tale comeback after a near two-year absence.

The 42-year-old, 14-time Major winner carded a one-over-par 71 at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Course to claim the 80th title of his glittering career.

Woods, who finished with an 11-under-par aggregate 269, raised his arms in delight after the victory, with several thousand fans ringing the green roaring their appreciation.

17. Europe retains Laver Cup

Germany’s Zverev came from a set down to complete a 6-7(3), 7-5, 10-7 win over Anderson as the Europeans successfully defended the title won in Prague last year.

Zverev’s win was the final act of an enthralling day of action at Chicago’s United Center, where the World team had roared back into contention in the day’s first rubber.

American duo John Isner and Jack Sock fought off two match-points to defeat Zverev and World No. 2 Roger Federer in a gripping doubles battle.

Isner and Sock prevailed 4-6, 7-6(2), [11-9] to give the World team an 8-7 lead with the three singles rubbers remaining.

18. Biswanath Dutt no more

Former BCCI president Biswanath Dutt passed away here on Monday after failing to recover from acute lung infection.

Dutt, who was suffering from age-related health problems for quite some time, was 92 and left behind a daughter and son Subrata Dutta, who is the senior vice-president of All India Football Federation (AIFF).

Dutt became the president of BCCI in 1988 after remaining the vice-president of the national governing body of cricket from 1982.

19. ‘Alternative Nobel’ for 3 Saudi activists

The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel, was awarded on Monday to three jailed Saudi human rights defenders and two Latin American anti-corruption crusaders.

The $1,13,400-cash award would be shared by Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani and Waleed Abu al-Khair “for their efforts to reform the totalitarian political system in Saudi Arabia.” Other recipients are Thelma Aldana of Guatemala and Colombia’s Ivan Velasquez.

20. Star Trek-inspired device developed for diagnosis

Scientists say they have developed a Star Trek-inspired device that could help make sophisticated medical diagnostics. The ‘multicorder’ created by researchers from the University of Glasgow takes inspiration from Star Trek’s famous tricorder device, which the show’s medics use to make quick and accurate diagnosis.